It WAS a Normal Day
by QuirkDemon
Summary: Lacey is a normal Australian surgeon who loves to dumpster dive-and that's what got her into this mess (no pun intended). now she is stuck in M.E with no way back, with someone she would really rather not talk to
1. Chapter 1

**Argh! Another story! I have so many ideas, it's ridiculous!**

**Anyway, R&R!**

It was a normal day. A day like any other day. I got up at 5:30, showered, turned on the telly and ate breakfast. I went for a jog and came home to get my son, Liam ready for his summer vacation—he'd be spending two months with his cousins—and went out again to go shopping. I wouldn't have been so bloody busy if hadn't been for my good-for-nothing ex. He left a long time ago, grinning like a shot fox, as if he'd done something great and holy, the mongrel. No matter, it's done and over with.

Anyway, it was just a normal day until I decided to drop by my friend, Grace's house. I really hoped she wasn't having a naughty—really, you have no idea how many times I've walked in on her and a...ah…_friend_ together. It'd been days since I'd seen her last.

"If the sign is down, just come on in." she says. She is the reason for the longest time, I thought all American women were molls. Now I'm afraid to not knock on her door. Very afraid. I mean, she's a great mate and all, but she's none too bright—at least not with sex on her mind.

Anyway, I was walking down the street and passed by an alley with a dumpster in it. I love dumpster diving, so I stopped by to take a peek inside, see what was there. All my friends at the hospital teased me relentlessly, saying a surgeon shouldn't be digging through dirty, germy trash the way I do but I don't care. I just love some of the things I find. It's beyond me why people throw out some of the things they do.

So, I'd just hoisted myself up and was leaning over the edge when I realized it was empty. I frowned but dropped back down and rubbed my hands on my daks and when I looked back up I was standing in a forest. Needless to say, I was gobsmacked.

_You had to choose today to wear your thongs…_

Sandals aren't exactly good for a hike now, are they?

"Who are you?"

I spun toward the voice, shocked to see a very ropeable looking man standing just a few feet away.

"Strewth, when did you get there?" I exclaimed.

"Shh, so you want to get killed?" he hissed rushing toward me on silent feet.

"What?"

"Shh." He placed a hand over my mouth. "They are close."

As if on cue, a voice rang out in the night.

"Where did you go?" it said. They sounded like they had a sore throat and a head cold. And like they'd had their voice box removed.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." The voice taunted. "Come on, we just wanna play a game with you."

The man's eyes widened and without removing his hand, he pulled me away with him behind a tree.

"If I let go, will you be quiet?" he whispered so quietly, I almost couldn't hear him. I nodded in response to his question and he slowly released me.

"What are they?" I glanced in the direction the sound of feet was coming from.

"Orcs. Where have you been that you do not know an orc when you see one?"

"Orcs?"

_Oh God._


	2. Chapter 2

"Got you!"

I screamed as an orc grabbed me by the arm and the man who found me by the scruff of his neck.

"Scream all you want, girl." The thing hissed in my ear. "Nothing can save you now; you or your boyfriend."

_Boyfriend? _

_Die?_

Oh well. If I was going to die, at least it'd be with a handsome bloke.

"Come on." We were tugged sharply away from our hiding place and pulled into the open. "We're going to have fun with you two."

I suddenly had a sort of jumpy feeling in my gut and I began to struggle, earning me a blow to the head from one of my captors. Really, did they expect me to just be warm and welcoming of what they were about to do, whatever it was? I wasn't ready to cark it, not yet.

We were led to a cave in the side of a mountain.

"Here we are." One of the orcs said. "Which one of you will be the first to go in?"

"What?" I asked incredulously. "You expect us to go in there? Why?"

"It's all good fun." Another one said. "We get to kill any prisoner we take."

"And that's…fun?"

"Shut up." The man murmured. "We need to find a way to distract them."

_How do we do that?_

And then I heard what I'm certain my fellow captive must've been hearing; horses—a lot of them.

"Alright." I muttered. "Um," I said raising my voice. "Look. You don't have to kill us."

"No, you're right. We do it for fun." All the orcs laughed and cheered at this statement.

"That's not going to help us." The man murmured anxiously.

"Well I don't see you doing anything. We just need to stall them." I whispered in his ear. Thank God he was on his knees, otherwise I wouldn't be able to reach his ear and our captors would've heard us. "Just talk. Keep talking."

"Why?" he asked the orcs. "Why kill us for fun?"

"It's the only fun thing we got!"

Again, every orc laughed as though we were missing something perfectly obvious, which I suppose now we were.

"Well, wouldn't things be much more interesting if you, I don't know…"

"Let us go and hunted us?" I suggested. The man looked at me like I was crazy but the orc who seemed to be in charge scoffed.

"Enough talk." He said pulling the man to his feet. "In you go!" he said giving him a shove.

"What's in there?" the man asked shrinking away from the cave.

"Wargs." The orc chieftain smiled cruelly. "You'll be feeding them tonight; you and your pretty woman."

"Wait—"

Too late, he was shoved into the cave with the wargs. His screams filled the air, mingling with the sound of horses running growing louder by the second—it was a miracle in itself that the orcs hadn't heard them, or even smelled them being orcs, that is.

"In you go." The orc behind me gave me a small push and I stumbled forward a step.

"Um." I said taking another step back. "I'm actually very fond of my life, thank YOU!"

My voice went up several notches as an orc picked me up under my arms and carried my closer to the caves.

"No, really." I tried in vain to talk them out of their insanity. "You don't have to do this, you can just, you know, let me go, track me—"

My words were cut off as the orc who held me stumbled forward with a grunt and then slowly tipped to the ground.

_Oh no._

Yeah, I was squished right underneath the dirty, smelly thing, but I didn't move. I lay still to avoid getting killed until I knew it was safe to come out.

When it was quiet, I lifted my head and looked around. I heard voices saying to check for any survivors and to kill the wargs. The wargs that killed the man.

"Over here!" a voice called. Someone knelt in front of me and suddenly there a face in front of mine. "Are you alright?"

_Blimey, that's an elf._

"Uh…yeah." He lifted the orc off of me and I stood. "Wish I could say the same for that man. I never even asked his name…" I thought aloud.

"You are alive." The elf said softly. "At least you can say that."

"Mm…hey, how come they couldn't hear you coming and I could?"

"We masked the sound." Another elf explained. "'Tis why they could not smell us either."

"Oh."

"Come." The second elf said. One look at him told me he must've been in charge. "You will travel with us."

"Where?"

"To Rivendell."

Good thing I'm a surgeon, I'm good with shock because really, I could've fainted right then and there.


	3. Chapter 3

bigNbeautiful89 sorry, no i'm not an Aussie, bit I felt like there should be a story w/ one so, I wrote one:) I love Australia, though

thx for the review btw

I woke up quickly—being a surgeon, I was used to that—but what I wasn't expecting was my first sight to be trees and an elf jumping down from a tree and landing almost silently just a few feet from where I lay. He nodded in acknowledgment and I sat up.

"Good morning," I said in a sleepy tone, though I was mostly awake. My voice takes the longest to wake up in the morning. I have no idea why.

"Quel amrun." He responded.

I smiled; the Elvish language always sounded so musical to me. But then, so does just about every other language.

"We will be leaving soon." He continued. "But first, we shall eat."

"Ace." I said standing. "I'm starving; always am. My mate, Grace says it's a miracle I don't inhale the whole hospital when I've been working for three days straight—which happens quite often, believe me."

I don't know why I told him all that so I just continued speaking.

"So, what's your name?"

"Gelmir Silimaurë and you?"

"Lacey Taylor."

"It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Lacey Taylor."

"Likewise."

We ate and I got to know Gelmir's mates a little. They had been sent out by Lord Elrond a week previous because of reports of orcs working in the area.

Not long later, about an hour maybe, I happened to notice on of the elves, Findecáno Carnesîr I believed his name was, limping.

"Oi." I said speeding up my gait a bit and touching his arm. "You alright, mate? You got a bit of a limp there."

"It is nothing." He said.

"Oi, I know you diggers." I said refusing to back down. "Trying to be tough, but not always the full quid because of it…you're not off your face are you?"

"I am alright." He insisted. "'Tis nothing so bad it cannot wait until we arrive in Rivendell."

"Well I'll give you points for not being a whinger. True blue, you are." I grinned. "Alright, I'll let you go this time but if I see any Technicolor yawns later, you're mine. I won't let you out of my sight until I know you won't go and die because of something I could've fixed. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am." He said smiling lightly.

"Good. Have you got anything also to eat? I'm starving."

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sorry the chapters are so short, but don't worry, they should be getting longer very soon:)

R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

**I've been getting complaints about the way Lacey talks, so I just want to tell you I have her talk the way she does on purpose—I'll explain later in the story, I swear:) **** And I know, the way she fell into M.E was sort of stupid, but plz just bear w/ me and don't be rude w/ your comments **


	5. Chapter 5

The good news is that we only had to walk for one extra day and we didn't run into any trouble—when I asked Gelmir why there weren't any more orcs, he only said it was very rare that orcs ever wander so close to Rivendell and left it at that.

The bad news is I talked the entire time. I sort of digress when I'm feeling awkward, nervous or anxious. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was a big bag of just about everything, but not just because I was in Middle Earth; a place that wasn't even supposed to be real—no, rather, I was feeling underestimated and judged and, well, incorrectly labeled. Any time I so much as sneezed one of the elves would instantly ask if I was alright—as if I couldn't take care of myself!

Now maybe I'm just paranoid, but I couldn't help but feel like they thought of me as a delicate little flower that ought to be cared for at all times and I didn't like it. So I told them a bit about my job, being sure to mention just how bad the injuries are I have to deal with. I also mentioned Liam and how he would be turning seven soon—I had him when I was eighteen and it all but ruined the reputation I'd made in my family as the genius who graduated and went to college early—and that I'd been raising him on my own. I couldn't tell if the looks on the elves' faces were from shock of my working a job while raising a son or the idea of such a scandal. So, yeah, I may have dug myself deeper in that hole of judgment I'd tried to get myself out of.

…

Wow. Just…wow. Rivendell is…wow, it's _gorgeous. _The kind of place Bradley—my ex—would promise to take me to before he decided our baby wasn't worth it. Thinking about his made me mad as a cut snake and the wonder I felt at seeing this beautiful place all but vanished in the blink of an eye, but I kept my face neutral as I was led through the city to meet the king. Bradley was in the past and it shouldn't have mattered that I was in a place just like the ones he promised to take me to, only without him. It shouldn't have mattered. But it did.

You see, bad memories have tendencies to make themselves known at the worst times and this was one of those times. Who wants to be thinking about their ex when they would be face to face with a king at any given moment?

"Lord Elrond will see you now."

I was pulled back to reality when an elf I didn't recognize spoke, and I then realized we had stopped walking and I was standing alone next to a stone pavilion.

"Oh." I said, inwardly pulling myself together. "Right then."

I slowly climbed the stone steps to officially meet Lord Elrond, ruler of the elves of Rivendell. Over and over again I told myself he was a kind man—it showed in the movie and books that he was quite reasonable and that he had no reason to be angry with me, let alone kill me.

So why couldn't I calm down? It felt like something very big was going to happen and I didn't know what it was.

"Lacey Taylor." He said upon my entrance. _"Creoso." _

"Um, hi." I bobbed a quick curtsey and he smiled.

"Sit." He said. "You must be weary after your journey."

"Not really, but thanks anyway." I remained standing. I couldn't sit when I was nervous.

"Very well, I shall stand as well. How do you fair?"

"Uh, good I guess. I mean, I'm kinda worried and confused as to how I was brought here, but I'm holding up just fine."

"What makes you say you were brought here?"

"What?"

"Was it not just an accident?"

"I…I don't know. How _should_ I know? One moment I was home, the next I wasn't. What more is there to say?"

"You did not see or hear anything." It was a statement, not a question.

"No." I was beginning to get frustrated. "I didn't. I supposed I was brought here because…because it felt like I was. It just made sense. Look, why are you asking me all this? What would make you think I knew what was happening when your diggers—sorry, I mean soldiers found me about to be fed to wargs?"

"It was necessary to find out what you knew so we know if the others we found were speaking the truth."

"Others? I wasn't the only one brought here?"

"No, there were two others. They each told the same story you have told."

_Story? I never even told them about the dumpster!_

"Can I meet them?"

He looked over my shoulder and I turned to see the very person I wanted to see.

"Grace!"

I ran into the arms of my best mate, not even caring about the glaringly obvious height difference as my arms encircled her waist—I made her look taller than she was, she made me look tinier than I am. We're a starburst contradiction, she and I.

"Jeez, I could swear you've shrunk!" she exclaimed.

"Shut up." I muttered into her elfin tunic—I wondered if she had to ask for the male clothing to avoid a dress.

From behind her came footsteps on the stone steps. I peeked around her to see new arrival—maybe I knew them.

I wasn't wrong. I did know this new person, all too well. Grace stiffened as she felt my body tighten.

"Lacey." Elrond said slowly from behind. He was smart; he was able to put mine and this new person's story together. I could hear it in his voice. "I believe you know Bradley."

...

**I know, this is soooooooo late but I was considering starting the story over again and then I got two reviews asking for more so I guess I'll just continue writing:)**

**R&R!**


	6. Chapter 6

I think I can say my reunion with Bradley went well. I didn't yell—for the most part. He apologized—sort of. Everything was explained—well, not really but I wasn't so angry after we talked. I mean, don't get me wrong, I_ was_ still angry but for different reasons. It started off as a staring contest.

Grace could see I was ready to explode when I saw Bradley and she suggested we go somewhere else where any yelling wouldn't be as disturbing to the residences' there. She led us to where she'd been staying and sat us both down on opposite sides of the room and for the first ten minutes or so all we did was stare at each other. He looked at me, I glared at him and Grace watched both of us.

"You haven't changed at all since we last saw each other." Bradley broke the silence.

"Actually, I've changed _quite_ a bit since last time. Lest you forget, there was _a baby_ inside me the last time. You remember that, don't you? I mean, I guess it didn't matter, since you left us."

"Well I assume it didn't matter to you either, _considering_ there was a baby inside you, _the last time_. I mean, God, Lacey, how could you do that?"

He was up and pacing now while all I could do was sit in shock.

"I thought—God, Lacey…I thought you were better than that."

"Better than what? Bradley, what the hell are you talking about?

"An abortion, Lacey? _Really?_"

"_Abortion?"_ I exclaimed shooting to my feet. "Are you kidding me?"

"You were only seven months when I left!"

"Exactly, you stupid f*cker! _Seven months_ when you left and I panicked and went into an early labor! Liam was born premature because you left!"

"What?" he stopped abruptly and faced me, looking scared and shocked and almost relieved. "'Liam'? You didn't have an abortion?"

"No! And how dare you accuse me of it!"

"I'm sorry." He whispered. "I didn't know."

We both stopped and just looked at each other, taking deep breaths to calm ourselves down.

"Why did you leave?" I asked finally. "Where did you go?"

"It's a long story." He answered quietly.

"I don't care, I want to know how you could leave our child the way you did."

He sighed and tiredly sat down again, gesturing for me to do the same. Grace seemed to have relaxed since we came in and got up, leaving the room to give me and Bradley privacy.

"The first thing you should know," he explained. "Is that I am not from your world. I'm from here; Middle Earth. I didn't know this when we met otherwise, I swear, I would have told you."

"How could you _not know_?"

"I don't know. When we left here, I guess my mind protected itself by blocking all my memories of this place."

"We?"

"I'll get to that, I promise. What you need to know is here, I'm of the Dúnedain. I'm much older than I look. Now that I'm back, I don't age as fast as I would have if I stayed with you."

"Are you saying you left because of your_ vanity?_"

"No. The day I left was the day I remembered who I am. Literally, I was just walking down the street when it all hit me like a ton of bricks. I remembered Middle Earth and Rivendell and my friends and I just _had_ to get back here."

"So…you forgot about me _and_ Liam and just left." It wasn't a question; it was cold hard fact.

"Yes, and I am so, _so_ sorry about that. I can't begin to explain how horrible I feel."

"How horrible _you_—" I broke off and looked away angrily.

"How horrible _you _feel?" I asked looking back at him. "Try explaining to a _four year old_ why he doesn't have a dad. 'Oh, you don't want to know him. He's just the sperm donor who helped bring you into this world and couldn't give enough responsibility and respect to stick around for your birth.'"

"Is that what you told him?"

"Don't be ridiculous, of course it's not what I told him. I just said you were a spirit who was a bit too free and you couldn't sit still long enough for a family. It was what I honestly thought happened and I was respectful."

"I appreciate that."

"You should. You're lucky I would never tell him his father _forgot_ about us. Dúnedain or not, that's ridiculous."

"You're taking this more calmly than I was expecting. It's impressive, even for a prodigy surgeon."

"Trust me, on the inside, my brain in turning itself inside-out to keep up with the information. Why would you leave Middle Earth?"

"We were just exploring, if I'm recalling everything correctly."

"What do you mean?"

"When we landed on Earth, neither of us could remember why we were there or how we even got there. Our brains sort of just made us new identities and we stayed there. It's possible we're not remembering things correctly and that maybe there are things we're forgetting from when we came back."

"You keep saying 'we.' Who's 'we'?"

Bradley took a deep breath and looked me in the eye from his seat across the room.

"Me and Grace." He said. "Grace is of the Dúnedain, just like me."

**Guys, I have no excuse for the lateness of this chapter. I am so sorry for the long wait. PLZ REVIEW! REVIEWS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED!**


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